What is a Smart Thermostat?

A smart thermostat gives you the ability to control your home’s heating system using a smart device. You can control a smart thermostat using voice commands if you link it to another smart device. Smart thermostats can help you keep your heating system efficient in order to save you energy. 

With a smart thermometer, you will be able to adjust your heating whether you are at home or away. You can easily set up heating schedules to make your heating more efficient and environmentally friendly. 

Investing in a smart thermostat device is an important step because a thermostat can control 60% of your energy bills. In short, smart thermostats will help you reduce your energy bills. 

An accompanying app can be used to increase or decrease the temperature instead of using simple scheduling methods on a traditional thermostat. For example, if you are out and realise you will not be home for some time, you can easily turn off your heating using your smartphone. Or you can set the heating to be one when you are home. 

Read Also : How Does My Central Heating Work? | Smart Adapt

What are the advantages of smart thermostats?

• With a smart thermostat you will be able to schedule your heating to work when it is needed. It can make it easier for you to reduce the temperature or turn it off in order to save energy. 

• Smart thermostats are great for saving money.  You can use your heating system to its full potential with the help of a smart thermostat. 

What are the disadvantages of smart thermostats?

• The upfront cost of a smart thermostat might be a little high. However, many boiler packages will have them included on one deal. This can save you money as they will also be installed along with your new boiler.

• The effectiveness of smart thermostats can be reduced when many people have access to it. This can lead to different changes in setting which can result in energy waste. 

Read Also : Ultimate Air Conditioning Guide For Efficient Cooling Solutions

What are the best thermostat brands?

There are three thermostat brands that stand out: 

• Google Nest 3rd Gen Smart Thermostat 
• tado° V3+ Smart Thermostat Starter Kit
• Hive MINI Heating Wireless Smart Thermostat 

Read Also: Top UK System Boilers – Smart Adapt

Google Nest 3rd Gen Smart Thermostat

Google Nest has the ability to learn and adjust to your lifestyle so that it can suit its heating to your daily routine. This feature can save you up to 16% on energy bills. 

After you leave your home, the Nest thermostat will adjust the temperature automatically. It also has the ability to turn off the hot water if you are away from home for several days in order to reduce your energy bills. 

You will be able to control your heating either through the Nest App or manually in order to keep track of your energy usage. It is also possible to control your Nest thermostat using voice commands through the use of Google Home Hub/Max or Nest speaker (these are sold separately). 

In order to modulate your condescending boiler and make it suitable for most heating systems, Nest makes use of OpenTherm technology. It is recommended that you check this feature before getting the Nest thermostat. 

The Nest thermostat can also let you know who has turned up the heat with multiple devices connected. It will also adapt itself to the different changes made by members of your household. 

Another great feature of the Nest thermostat is the green leaf. This feature would set your home heating at a level of optimum energy efficiency. It always tries to adapt and improve to your home’s climate. It is a quite useful feature so make sure to make the best of it. 

The Nest Learning thermostat can detect your presence and as a result turn on its 24-bit LCD display. This display will show you the current temperature setting or the time. As for when you are asleep it will go to sleep mode in order to maximise the life of your battery. 

Another product that your Nest thermostat is compatible with is the Nest Protect. This device can detect carbon monoxide leakage or fires. So when there is a gas leakage, the Nest Protect will send a signal to your Nest thermostat. The Nest thermostat will then turn off the boiler in order to increase safety. 

The device will send you notifications and vocal instructions on your smart device. A monthly subscription is not required by the Nest smart thermostats. However, you can have it to make full use of Google security tech. 

How much does Google Nest thermostat cost?

The cost of the Google Nest thermostat is almost £229.

Read Also : Different Types Of Reliable Boiler Systems Explained

tado° V3+ Smart Thermostat Starter Kit

The tado° V3+ Smart Thermostat has a sleek design and considered to be a robust thermostat. It can give you total control over the heating of your home. The tado° kit includes a wireless receiver, a wireless thermostat, and internet bridge. 

By using the tado° app you will be able to access many impressive features of the tado° thermostat. The features included are:

• weather adaptation
• Geofencing
• energy savings report
• insightful statistics
• multi-room control (additional Smart Thermostats required)
• frost protection
• heating boost function

And in the case that your boiler breaks down or there is something wrong with your heating, you will get notifications on your smartphone. 

Many of the features will be accessible through a subscription service that is called Auto Assist. This service costs £3 a month. 

The app will give you control over your heating system. You will be able to do things such as adjusting, scheduling or reporting on the efficiency of your system. 

Multiple users will be able to set up their accounts and be part of the system using the Geofencing feature. So as a result, your heating will react to the first person entering or the last one leaving and adjust the temperature accordingly. 

The tado° V3+ Smart Thermostat is compatible with various smart devices operating systems. You can also use Zone Heating by adding the Smart Radiator Thermostat. Zone Heating can help you set each room to an individual temperature. 

How much does the tado° V3+ Smart Thermostat cost?

The tado° V3+ Smart Thermostat costs almost £199. 

Hive MINI Heating Wireless Smart Thermostat

Unlike other Hive thermostats, the Hive Thermostat Mini features both a smaller and sleeker design. It has measurements of H8 x W8 x D2cm. The Mini thermostat has the ability to save you some money by never using more than the needed energy or by never heating an unoccupied room. 

The Hive Mini is compatible with different types of boilers. That includes all gas combi boilers and most oil, electric and LPG boilers. Make sure to check if your boiler is compatible with the Hive thermostat before buying the device. 

The Hive Smart Home app allows you to manage your heating and hot water by easily using a smart device. You can use the multiroom heating feature that enables you to set the temperature for each room individually by using the Hive smart radiator valves (TRV).

You will both be able to use voice commands as well as have access to your heating system using an app. You can use Siri, Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa, all of which are compatible with the Hive Thermostat. The frost protection feature can keep your pipes protected during the colder months. 

As for the holiday feature, it can set your heating to minimum in order to save you money on energy bills. However, to access many of these features you will require the Hive Heating Plus. This is a monthly subscription that only costs £3.99 or you can pay it yearly at £39.99. 

Read Also : Everything You Need To Know About Boilers

How much does the Hive Mini thermostat cost?

The Hive Mini smart thermostat costs approximately £139. 

Which smart thermostat should You get?

In conclusion, they all share the same objective and fundamentally do the same thing. But each one has a different design and different features so the choice is yours to make and your choice might be based on personal preference.

FAQ